Over the course of 8 years writing this blog, I haven’t
steered clear of heavy topics.

I love blogs for their realness. Yet often they take us, the
reader, out of reality with their overly whimsical view of someone’s supposed
daily life. My life is quite whimsical (to me) but also quite real. Like
nitty-gritty real….no one escapes nitty-gritty real, right?

The purpose of my blog has always been to document life here
at The Smith Homestead….because I have a fantastically bad memory. The blog has
been my source of memory-lane-walking over the years, a wonderful gift I’ve
given to myself to keep it maintained and alive.

Mixed into this life of food and family and home renovations
and backyard parties and crafts and entrepreneurial ideas…all of which are REAL
stuff….is the other real stuff. The layoffs, the financial struggles, the
failures and missteps, the spiritual questions and heavy life issues that weigh
heavily at points in the journey.

Recently I’ve briefly shared about, but I want to dive in a
bit deeper today, into something that hit our little homestead hard over the
past 3 years.

The discovery of rock bottom in our 15 year marriage.

My brief mentioning’s have flooded my inbox and my FB
messenger with notes from friends and readers who find that they too, are at
their own rock bottom with their partner.

So this post is a bit of a journey through what I have
learned over the past year in particular and a bit of wisdom I’ve stumbled upon
that just might resonate with another struggling at this same point in the
journey. I’m not going to dive super deep into details…because blogs aren’t the
place for that. But if you want to grab a cup of coffee and sit down for a
chat, let me know. I had an amazing friend that walked this journey with me and
I am eternally indebted to her and happy to pay it forward.

Let me first say, I am learning more and more as I open up
with others about this topic that this is really, really common. That isn’t to
say it’s a good thing. But if you do find yourself in a place
like I did….like we did… don’t ignore it. Don’t feel guilty about it. Don’t
feel like a failure or wonder ‘what’s wrong with me?’.Don’t run to the doctor for your first
prescription of Zoloft and don’t start making drinks with friends after work
the new norm.